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Rebecca (Bate) Buck of Liverpool, England and Ontario, Canada

Rebecca Bate was baptized on Nov. 16, 1834 at the church of St. James in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Her parents were William and Catherine (Cottier) Bate. Rebecca was my great-great-grandmother. She appears with her family in the 1841 England census. She was listed as 6 years old. See William and Catherine (Cottier) Bate for more information.

William and Catherine and family had moved to what is now Ontario by the time the 1851 census was taken there. They were living in Ernestown Township, Addington County. Rebecca was still at home with her parents when that census was taken. She was listed as 16. I have not yet seen a marriage record for Rebecca, but she married Azel Buck by about 1857. I haven't been able to find birth records for any of their children either. Here is their household in the 1861 census for Ernestown Township, Lennox and Addington County [page 12]:

Samuel Buck was Azel's younger brother.

For the 1871 census they were still in Ernestown Township [Sub-district g, page 11]:

In 1881 they were still in Ernestown [page 49]:

By this time Parker had married Sarah Beaubien. They were my great-grandparents. According to the Ontario Birth, Marriage and Death Records, available at Ancestry.ca and the LDS site at http://www.familysearch.org, Cyrus married Ida McLaughland on Jul. 10, 1880. He was 21, and his place of birth was Ernestown. His parents were listed as Asahel and Rebecca Buck. Cyrus was sometimes known by his middle name, Wilson.

By the time of the 1891 census, only the two youngest children were still at home with their parents [Ernestown Township, page 35]:

Miles, Roy, and Oscar all lived for a time in the Rochester area of New York. All three married there. The records are available on the LDS website. Miles married Ida Ames on Oct. 21, 1898. He was 24 and she was 18. Roy married a widow, Della (Arnold) Roth, on May 11, 1898. He was 31 and she was 27. Oscar married Emma Gross on Jan. 5, 1898. He was 28 and she was 25. All three men were working as painters, and all of the marriages took place in Rochester. Roy may have stayed in New York for the rest of his life. Miles and family came back to Ontario by April 1905, when he and Ida had a son named Edwin who was born in Ernestown Township. Oscar and his wife had a son named Mark Oscar Buck in Nov. 1904 in Ontario.

In the 1901 census for Ernestown Township [Sub-district d, Sub-division 2, page 6], Azel appears as a widower living near some family members. There is a death record for Rebecca which indicates that she died on Nov. 23, 1900. Her age at death was 63 years, one month, 19 days. That works out to a date of birth of Oct. 4, 1837. Likely the Oct. 4 part is correct, but her baptism record was dated Nov. 16, 1834, so she was most likely born in 1834. It appears that she was several years older than Azel and possibly she didn't want to reveal that fact. Her cause of death was inflammation of the kidneys.

Effie Buck married John Babcock on Jan. 28, 1895 when she was 18 and he was 29. They were the parents of the late Dean Babcock who did much work on the family history. Ida Buck, 19, married Frederick Daley, 27, on Aug. 13, 1896.

In 1911 Azel was still in Ernestown [Sub-district D, Ward 2, page 5] and was living with family members. He died on Sep. 10, 1918. His cause of death was uremia. He and Rebecca were buried in Union Lutheran Cemetery in Ernestown Township. Their stone says:

Azel Buck/born July 1, 1836/died/Sept. 10, 1918/
Rebecca/Bate/ wife of/Azel Buck/died Nov. 22, 1900/aged/63 years/1 mo. 19 dys

John Buck, who is my mother's cousin, says that Parker and Sarah (Beaubien) Buck were buried at the foot of the same plot but there is no stone for them. My grandmother Rose (Buck) Webster Rippi was also buried in that cemetery, with her second husband, Sam Rippi.

Dean Babcock gave my grandmother some family history information years ago. According to Dean, here is the list of the children of Azel and Rebecca:

1) Parker H. Buck - born Aug. 24, 1858

2) Cyrus W. Buck - born Mar. 6, 1860

3) Wellington Buck - born Mar. 12, 1862, died Feb. 6, 1863

4) Miles Buck - born May 22, 1865

5) Roy D. Buck - born Jun. 9, 1867

6) Oscar Buck - born Sep. 27, 1869

7) Effie M. Buck - born Mar. 3, 1876

8) Ida M. Buck - born Aug. 2, 1877

This information may have come from a family bible, but if so I have no idea where the bible might be now. Dean also stated that Parker Buck married Sarah Beaubien on Nov. 15, 1880.

John Buck told me in a letter dated Feb. 12, 1994: "Rebecca Bate so Edwin Buck told me was supposed to have worked for a Mr. Miller that lived near them and before Rebecca was married, and he in later years gave and willed that small farm about 20 acres to Rebecca." According to John, this was part of lot 11 on the second concession of Ernestown Township.